quote from civil disobedience

My favorite quote from the first couple of paragraphs was,“ I think we should be men first, and subjects after.” I believe Thoreau’s thinking behind this quote was men were treated as government’s projects, instead of being themselves. From this quote the reader is able to see how men had no freedom and were treated like slaves of the government. They were forced to do things the government wanted them to do, instead of doing things they liked to do. Thoreau also shows that the government put themselves before any citizens, to get things accomplished. If that meant reduce the freedom of the citizens, they shall do so. The reason this is my favorite quote is because it relates to us today, only in the school system. Teachers and advisers force us to do many things instead of us having the right to go our own way. I believe this quote is a nexus to the students because we are kids first and students after. We have the freedom to do things outside of school, and everything does not have to be based on school. This quote shows that the people, and especially the students, have the right to say no and do things on their own. I believe that the men who became subjects of the government, felt just like us students do today, trapped, harassed, and useless. This quote represents how it is incumbent for students to stand up and do things for themselves, instead of being forced to do things by teachers. Thoreau uses this quote to show how the government was corrupting society and taking over the lives of many free citizens.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

...his book CivilDisobedience: "Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience then? I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right. The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right." (Henry David Thoreau Quotes) This is the quote which I had at the top of my mind while I completed my week of CivilDisobedience. According to Merriam- Webster dictionary the definition of civildisobedience is “the refusal to comply with certain laws or to pay taxes and fines, as a peaceful form of political protest” (Definition of CivilDisobedience) My project acted upon civildisobedience because throughout this week I would sit anywhere I wanted in Chemistry because in that class we had assigned seats, this project broke the classroom rules of my chemistry class which portrays an act of civildisobedience. I believe students should have the right to sit anywhere they pursue in class because they know their own capabilities.
Being a teenager I believe students are mature enough to know where they best fit in the class, whether it is next to a friend because they constantly need...

...Giselle Cornejo
AP English
Mrs. Silva
1/14/13
Transcendentalism: CivilDisobedience
“All men recognize the right of revolution; that is, the right to refuse allegiance to and to resist the government…” (53). In Thoreau’s essay, CivilDisobedience, he talks about how the government destroys/corrupts the individuality of a person and how it focuses on major figures instead of the “people” of America and their beliefs through language and metaphor.
Thoreau’s overall meaning is how the government takes away the individuality of a person. The government tries to get an entire body of people to follow one rule, the rule only major political figures like Washington and Franklin create. The people were only allowed to follow the governments look at things, not really follow the beliefs of the religion. Was their religion, yes, but the government was more important. This is what caused Thoreau to question, why? For a Transcendentalist like Thoreau he did not like the idea of following the idea of one man, to not have a choice in his beliefs. The government was taking away the chance for people to have their own beliefs, to be an individual. In the end though it was the man who had the choice of whether he wanted to obey the government or rebel and have his own beliefs. The man who chose to “rebel” will live more freely and have his own thoughts, “If a man is thought-free, fancy-free, imagination-free, that which is not...

...﻿ CivilDisobedience
Based on the writings of Henry David Thoreau it is very relevant that he is very opposed to government involvement of any kind. He doesn’t believe that the government should be involved in everyday life. Thoreau doesn’t understand the point of having a government system that will be useful to everyone and not just a select few. Thoreau proceeds to explain his many reasons as to why the “government is best [when it] governs [the] least.” He thought people should stand up to the very ones that made society so corrupt and weak. Thoreau believes the government puts personal selfish interests on a pedestal.
Thoreau’s opening statement set the tone for his entire essay. He begins his essay by saying that the government, so far, has rarely proven to be useful. He believes that the power the government has derived from the majority rather than the few. This is mainly because the majority is the strongest group not because their viewpoint is right but because they have many in numbers. He then continues to express the fact that many people do what they believe is right and not to just follow the law created by the majority. He insists that people should do away with the law all together when the legal system becomes unjust. Thoreau then states that the United States is a perfect example of an unjust government. He believes that is because of the fact that they have shown support of slavery and they have...

...CivilDisobedienceCivildisobedience is defined as the refusal to obey certain laws or governmental demands for the purpose of influencing legislation or government policy. It is characterized by the employment of nonviolent techniques such as boycotting, picketing, and nonpayment of taxes. Civildisobedience is a nonviolent act of protest, which is caused by a moral belief that a law is wrong or otherwise known as unconstitutional. In the nineteenth century, the American author Henry David Thoreau wrote “CivilDisobedience,” an important essay justifying such action which started the boycotting and other nonviolent actions.
Civildisobedience was started by the American author Henry David Thoreau. Henry Thoreau established the modern theory behind the practice of civildisobedience in his essay, “CivilDisobedience,” originally titled “Resistance to Civil Government,” which was published in 1849. The idea behind this essay was that of self-reliance, and how one is in morally good standing as long as one can “get off another man’s back.” The essay also stated that someone should not have to physically fight the government, but one must not support it. Civildisobedience can also be distinguished from other...

...CivilDisobedience by Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau was little known outside his hometown of Concord, Massachusetts, where he was much admired for his passionate stance on social issues, his deep knowledge of natural history, and the originality of his lectures, essays, and books. He was also maligned as a crank and malingerer who never held a steady job and whose philosophy was but a pale imitation of Ralph Waldo Emerson 's. Thoreau was a man of ideas who struggled all his life to create a path that would refuse compromise. “All his activities--teaching, pencil-making, surveying, and, above all, writing--were grounded in his faith in a higher moral law that could be discovered and practiced through the unremitting discipline of living ever in the present moment” (Walls 1). For Thoreau this belief meant living "in each season as it passes," fully attuned to the rhythms and phenomena of nature. His art, as it matured, became a way both to keep his own perceptions alert to all the potential of the present and to incite his readers to discover their own mode of attentiveness to life beyond the "mud and slush of opinion." “In the century after his death, the admiration of his few followers snowballed, and he is now recognized as one of the greatest writers in the United States” (Walls 1).
After presentation at the Concord Lyceum on January 26, 1848, Thoreau's essay "Resistance to Civil Government" was...

...Thoreau's "CivilDisobedience"
Major Themes
Civil Government and Higher Law. In CivilDisobedience, Thoreau's basic premise is that a higher law than civil law demands the obedience of the individual. Human law and government are subordinate. In cases where the two are at odds with one another, the individual must follow his conscience and, if necessary, disregard human law.
Thoreau prepared his lecture and essay on resistance to civil government in response to a specific eventthe Mexican War, which was declared in May of 1846, and which was expected to result in the expansion of slave territory. He was not particularly inclined to devote much thought to political theory and reform. He writes in CivilDisobedience:
. . . the government does not concern me much, and I shall bestow the fewest possible thoughts on it. It is not many moments that I live under a government, even in this world. If a man is thought-free [free in his thinking], fancy-free, imagination-free, that which is not never for a long time appearing to be to him, unwise rulers or reformers cannot fatally interrupt him.
The search for understanding of universal laws forms the proper use of a man's time, energy, and intellect. Thoreau writes dismissively of conscious reform: "I have other affairs to attend to. I came into this world, not chiefly to make this a good place to...

...approach to civildisobedience.
The following essay will attempt to evaluate the approach taken by Dworkin and Habermas on their views of civildisobedience. The two main pieces of literature referred to will be Dworkin's paper on CivilDisobedience and Nuclear Protest'# and Habermas's paper on CivilDisobedience: Litmus Test for the Democratic Constitutional State.'# An outline of both Dworkin's and Habermas's approach will be given , further discussion will then focus on a reflective evaluation of these approaches. Firstly though, it is worth commenting on civildisobedience in a more general context. Most would agree that civildisobedience is a vital and protected form of political communication in modern constitutional democracies'# and further the 'civildisobedience has a legitimate if informal place in the political culture of the community.'# Civildisobedience can basically be broken down into two methods, either intentionally violating the law and thus incurring arrest (persuasive), or using the power of the masses to make prosecution too costly to pursue (non persuasive).
Dworkin takes a categorical approach to civildisobedience, by breaking it down into a number of different types then applying certain...

...where most everything is orderly and we can (sometimes) depend on someone who can tell us, the citizens, what to do in times of utmost emergency and/or sorrow.
6. One act of civildisobedience that I found was the Salt March of 1930 led by Gandhi. The Salt March started when Salt Laws started taxing the production of salt in India so the country had to start importing the salt from Britain. Gandhi was successful because it was inspiring and organized, it proved the Indian civilians were a force not to be reckoned with, and it began waves of even more acts of civildisobedience, and influenced later peoples. I believe that more individuals do not ac on their principles because they are frightened of possible outcomes. We are so afraid of making a fool of ourselves that all we can do is keep quiet and hope for the best. This is not a very intelligent way of thinking because without those few individuals who mustered up the courage and stood up for what they believed in we would not be the society we are today. We would not think the way we do today and we would all be walking around wondering what would’ve happened if the Puritans were too scared to flee to America or if Martin Luther King Jr. was too nervous to speak his mind about racial inequality.
7. Yes, Thoreau believed civildisobedience came from deliberate living because he lived his life as he thought...